A SEQUEL TO INFLUENZA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 8 May 1890, Page 18

A SEQUEL TO INFLUENZA.

A curious sequel to the influenza has appeared in the South of Europe. According to a correspondent in Rome, it is known by the country people in the North of Italy, among whom it has made its appearance, as " La Nona," or " the falling-asleep " disease. This novel malady was first noticed in Mantua immediately after the subsidence of the strange plague which is now sweeping around the globe. The victims to the aftermath of influenza fall into a death-like trance, lasting about four days, out of which the patient is described as waking in a state of extreme exhaustion. Recovery is very slow, though up to the present no fatal cases are known to have occurred ; but that it is an after-effect of the epidemic seems a reasonable hypothesis, since in no instance has it seized anyone who has. not had a severe attack of influenza in the course of the past winter. How far it deserves the title of a "new disease" remains to be seen. Yet to describe it as merely a sequel to the influenza is not to approach much nearer a solution cf the pathological problem ; for the origin and, in many respects, the exact nature of the influenza epidemic are, as the Standard remarks, still moot questions. Whether that ailment is contagious, or even infectious, cannot be affirmed with any certainty, and no doubt for years to come the epidemiologists will be discussing how far it is due to a specific poison in the air, or in what degree the theory of this poison being malaria from the inundated lands of China is justified. At all events, of its numerous seqiieUe, "La Nona " is the most remarkable, though some of the others are sufficiently peculiar,

A case of the new trance disease known as 41 La Nona " is reported to have taken place at St. Leonards, Hastings. It appears that a gentleman staying at an hotel in the western part of the borough, who had had influenza, went to bed one evening at the usual time. Not coming down at the customary hour the next morning, his room was entered, and he was found to be fast asleep. All efforts to wake him were fruitless, although three doctors were called in and mustard plasters applied to his feet. He eventually came out- of the trance lat.e afc night in a state of extreme exhaustion, and still lies very weak and il).

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